While the Olympic flag arrived on French soil on Monday, Paris took up the torch to organize the next Games in the summer of 2024. Budget, infrastructure, promises… Beyond sport, many issues surround the project.
Three years, and significant challenges to overcome. Festivities launched in the company of French medalists, flight over the capital by the Patrouille de France, concert … While Paris symbolically took over from Tokyo on the occasion of the closing ceremony organized on Sunday, the olympic flag arrived this Monday on the tarmac at Roissy – Charles de Gaulle airport. The French delegation then took the direction of the Town Hall, to hoist the famous flag there.
“I’m determined like never before Tony Estanguet, the president of the Paris 2024 organizing committee, announced on Sunday. The next three years will be a marathon but also a great source of pride.“The new Olympiad is indeed synonymous with many challenges, starting with the infrastructure that will host the event.
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If 95% of the Olympic venues already exist (such as the Stade de France or the Vélodrome de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines), there is still equipment to be built, mainly in Seine-Saint-Denis. An investment of 1.3 billion euros for new projects.
Among the sites, we can mention the climbing site at Le Bourget, the aquatic center in Saint-Denis, and, near Dugny, the media village. The latter will have to accommodate 2,800 technicians and journalists, who will also have a center available to work at the Parc des Expositions du Bourget. In the long term, 1,300 housing units will see the light of day, within an urban planning project supposed to link Le Bourget, Dugny and La Courneuve.
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Another pole: the athletes’ village, designed as a link between Saint-Ouen, Saint-Denis and Île-Saint-Denis. The site, planned for 14,000 athletes, must be transformed after the Games into 2,200 family accommodation, 900 student accommodation, and public facilities.
“It’s progressing pretty well, all the lights are green, assures Michaël Aloïsio, chief of staff of the organizing committee for the 2024 Games. We are lucky to have a very different model from previous editions. We build very little. And the rare equipment that we build is progressing well. And then there are also temporary facilities such as the ephemeral Grand Palais which will host judo and wrestling, and which has already been delivered.“
Some projects nevertheless give rise to local protests. In Aubervilliers, a future aquatic training center is causing controversy: the swimming pool must indeed encroach on the plots of a working garden.
“We tried to build a useful project in Seine-Saint -Denis”
On the side of the Games organizing committee, Michaël Aloïsio nonetheless highlights a project designed for “accelerate local development“. “Before being a candidate, we spent a year studying what had worked and not worked well in previous editions, he explains. We built a radically different project. We tried to build a useful project in Seine-Saint-Denis. We want each piece of equipment to be built for people first and not for the Games. We want them to have local utility. We want each euro invested to serve the population.“
Additional swimming pools, housing, road equipment … The chief of staff at the organizing committee for the 2024 Games promises a “lasting legacy“. “We still have a lot of steps, he adds. We will announce in a few months all the part related to the recruitment of volunteers, which interests many French people. There is a very strong craze. Then it will be the announcements on the course of the flame, the mascot … A lot of things will happen for three years. The Games won’t just start in the summer of 2024, it starts now.“
In Seine-Saint-Denis, Stéphane Troussel, the president of the department, is thus counting on positive results in terms of “attractiveness“. “It is estimated that out of the 150,000 jobs mobilized, there is a third for Seine-Saint-Denis“, he explains to franceinfo.
The budget of the Games Organizing Committee (…) is almost 98% financed by private funds.
Michaël Aloïsio, Chief of Staff of the Organizing Committee for the 2024 Games
As for the sums invested, faced with the risk of slippages often caused by projects such as the Games, Michaël Aloïsio is reassuring: “There are two budgets, and they are often confused. That of the Games organizing committee, which is 3.9 billion euros. It is almost 98% financed by private funds. A third comes from TV rights, from IOC partners. Another third of the ticket office. And a last third of the national partners of Paris 2024. This budget finances all the costs directly linked to the Games: the ceremony, the transport of the athletes, the beach volleyball court at the foot of the Eiffel Tower …“
“And then, public actors invest to capitalize on the momentum of the Games to accelerate the development of territories, he continues. There, it is the budget of the delivery company of the Olympic works in charge of the construction sites (Solideo) which will allow the village to be released.“
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There remains the question of transport, linked to the ambitious project of a “regional automatic supermetro” carried by the Grand Paris Express (GPE). As the site was delayed, particularly because of the pandemic, the commissioning of the Olympic sections of lines 16 and 17, initially planned for the Olympics, has been postponed. The first part of line 16, from Saint-Denis Pleyel to Clichy-Montfermeil, will indeed be delivered two years late.
As for sport, the calendar of events has already been set. The athletes will indeed have to compete from July 26 to August 11, 2024.